First blogpost. A change of plans and an introduction.

Hello and welcome to the first post of this blog! I’m still at home (my parent’s place to be more precise), so no travel insights yet. These are the last days before I leave and it all feels a bit unreal, I definitely have a hard time imagining what to expect. It’s probably a good opportunity to introduce myself a little bit. 

I also use the bicycle on a daily basis!

I am Tim, recently graduated as a Master in History and as a bicycle mechanic. I live in Antwerp, Belgium with my parents and two brothers. I discovered trekking with my family quite early, but I have been embarking on travels myself mostly by bike but also on foot since 2018. Ever since I discovered it and started to long for more, I thought about doing a very long distance travel by bike. One that was not structured by frames like holidays or obligations and would enable leaving Europe. During my studies I became more and more certain that this would be something I might do after graduating. And quite suddenly this has happend! Here I am, almost starting a months-long adventure! At the same time I am very well aware that being on the road for so long, without clear objecties could turn off motivation to continue travel or awaken some kind of homesickness. Shortly: I might get tired of travelling, the insight of which makes it easy to take this journey not too heavily; going home is easy! This blog is meant to cover this voyage, that is for me a big experiment on my views and experience with travelling.

Clearly i can get tired.

The original idea was to cycle solo to Morocco as a first objective, but I just decided to team up with Nicolaas to instead prioritise visiting different social, ecological, sustainable and cooperative projects throughout Belgium, France and maybe even Spain. The intent is to roam through the country and visit, exchange and learn from the different projects. Of course our mode of transport will still be the bicycle. The combination of it being a sustainable mode of transportation, its the slowness and fastness (compared to cars or by foot) and the autonomy it offers, comes together very well in my opinion. I also think the bicycle offers a nice technical challenge, as a machine that needs to be kept in shape, but is easily repairable.

I look onto the coming months as a boundless time with free possibilities. From a solo journey, the first weeks and months might very well be a time for learning and exchanging, in company of Nicolaas. The future will tell where my path leads to.